Does Sex Help with Weight Loss?

Sex helps with weight loss? The very notion is exhilarating, isn’t it? It’s like getting to know that you can lose weight while eating all your favorite foods, without having to worry about gaining weight, having your skin break out or becoming lethargic due to excessive consumption of fatty foods. Not to mention how fun this process of losing weight would be. However, the most important question is – is there a catch to losing weight when having sex?

Sex Helps Lose Weight?! That’s a Myth

It is true that the activity of sex does, in fact, burn a certain amount of calories – around 85-150 calories for a 30-minute sex, to be precise. The average human loses a pound of weight when they burn 3500 calories, which means that suppose you’re using up 150 calories every time, having sex roughly 23 times would make you lose that pound. But the catch is that in order to maintain that 150 calorie average, you have to have sex continuously for at least 30 minutes. But the truth is that most men barely last for 5 minutes, with the high point of your calorie burning activity being when you orgasm – which lasts for all of 15 seconds. After that, your blood pressure and heart rate return to normal and you won’t be losing much of anything, except your breath.

Also, several independent studies have shown that having sex once is the equivalent of walking up two flights of stairs. This is not a lot of exercise, especially considering the fact that average person’s heart rate does not move beyond 130. It’s a physical activity, yes, but far from enough to make your body burn enough calories to lose weight. This means that until and unless you’re having copious amounts of sex regularly, or are able to last more than half an hour in the bed, there’s no way only having sex can make you lose weight. You have to incorporate a healthy and calorie deficit diet, alongside strenuous physical activities.

So, does sex help you lose weight? Long answer short: For the average person, no.

But Sex Does Help in Some Way!

Sex alone may not be that effective to help you lose weight, but don’t let that discourage you. There are other advantages of having regular sex with your partner, including:

Sex Makes You Sleep Better

People often underestimate the importance of a good night’s sleep, which is why they often lessen a few hours from their sleep cycles in order to accommodate other activities from their schedules. Among the many negative effects the lack of sleep has on the human body, one of the most detrimental is the body’s decreasing ability to get rid of fat. However, you can compensate that lack of sleep by having sex (especially before going to sleep).

Sex is a great way for your body to release oxytocin, which helps you in falling asleep. This in turn improves your body’s ability to shed more fat, as a result of which you’re able to lose weight a bit more easily.

Sex Can Curb Cravings for Calorific Foods

Having sex also makes your body control the production of the stress hormone, more popularly known as Cortisol. An increased amount of cortisol in your body encourages your requirement for foods with high amounts of fat and calories. So with your cortisol levels in check, your cravings are automatically curbed as well.

Benefits of Sex That Really Count

Does sex help you lose weight? Now that you know the answer to that question, it’s time to move on to other benefits of sex.

1. Stress Reliever

A study conducted at Yale has shown that having sex on a regular basis helps improve the rate of cell growth in our part of the brain called hippocampus. It is this section that helps in regulating our stress levels. Having regular sex also means having lesser cortisol levels (as explained above) and reduced blood pressure.

2. Your Sense of Smell Improves

The University of Calgary did a research, which showed conclusively that after people have had sex, their body witnesses an increase in the production of a hormone named prolactin. This hormone is important because it helps in the development/formation of newer nerve cells inside the human brain, which leads to an increased cell growth in one’s olfactory bulb. Simply put, the more sex you have, the higher your chances of having your sense of smell improved!

3. Your Chances of Developing Prostate Cancer Reduce Drastically

This is one of those facts that is very hard to believe, but is true nonetheless. Several independent researches and studies (including the ones published in the Journal of the American Medical Association) done on men who ejaculated for a minimum of twelve times every month, showed lesser likelihood (less by a third) of developing prostate cancer, as opposed to those who masturbated/had sex less than them.

It has been theorized that regular ejaculation helps clean the carcinogens present in one’s prostate, which collect over a period of time. However, no conclusive proof has been brought forward to validate that statement.

4. Reduces Chances of Having a Heart Attack

You may or may not be happy with the answer to the question “Does sex help you lose weight?”, but this heading will definitely cheer you up. Increased researches have shown the benefits men can reap with regular sex. One study taken with 1000 male participants showed that more sex means reduced levels of homocysteine in men. For those who don’t know, this chemical is found in our blood stream, and is known to increase our chances of developing life-threatening cardiac problems. The study also showed that regular sex didn’t have as good of an effect on women. However, it didn’t go into much detail because sadly, the study wasn’t conducted on women.

 
 
Current time: 03/28/2024 06:27:32 p.m. UTC Memory usage: 65784.0KB